Trophies are given as awards on many occasions. Frequently they are the prize in a contest, an athletic event, an academic event or an intellectual competition such as spelling bees and chess matches, for example. Prestigious events warrant prestigious trophies, which may be made of or coated with metal, perhaps precious or semi-precious, and marble. However, the need for such prestigious trophies is limited. On the other hand, the need for more commonplace awards expands rapidly as the cost of producing trophies is reduced. Success in reducing production costs of trophies now makes trophies readily available, for example, for tots in day school, players in day camps, and for more adult performers who engage in such activities as corporate bowling, softball and basketball leagues, and the like, all of which are very familiar.
A large measure of the success in reducing trophy cost has resulted from constructions employing plastic parts in place of natural products such as metal, stone and marble. However, in substituting these man-made materials for the natural materials, there has been a desire and an effort to have the trophies give the appearance and feel of natural materials. Thus, a gold-plated, brass or bronze figure may now be replaced with a metalized plastic figure. A base which had been made of stone or marble can now be replaced with one that is made of plastic and fabricated to give the appearance of the natural material.
However, a problem arises in that most trophies have a vertical orientation and sit on a shelf or platform. To provide the feel or heft of a trophy made of natural materials, and also to provide stability for a standing trophy, it is necessary that the plastic bases used in the less expensive trophies be weighted.
Weighting has been accomplished by filling a hollow plastic base with an initially fluid material, for example, gypsum or hydrostone, which is a naturally occurring product having physical properties similar to that of cement. The base is filled with the fluid material through a fill hole. After the material hardens, the base takes on the feel of natural stone or marble.
However, a problem has developed in that uncontrolled material flow during filling of the base allows internal splashing and resultant thinned-out portions at the perimeter of the filler. Then shocks to the base have caused breakage of the internal cement-like material. As a result, particles of cement have been known to break off and fall from the fill hole. This is objectionable to those who sell trophies as well as to those who receive and keep trophies. The trophy seems to be "cheapened" to those who buy and those who receive the trophy.
What is needed is a filled trophy base, using artificial materials, that has the feel of natural stone or marble, suppresses formation of particles during filling and does not release hardened particles of the fill material.